Unless otherwise configured, the client libraries use Application Default Credentials to authenticate with Google Cloud Services. While this works for most applications, in some cases you may need to override this default. You can do so by providing the UnifiedCredentialsOption The following example shows how to explicitly load a service account key file:
[](std::string const& keyfile) {
auto is = std::ifstream(keyfile);
is.exceptions(std::ios::badbit); // Minimal error handling in examples
auto contents = std::string(std::istreambuf_iterator<char>(is.rdbuf()), {});
auto options =
google::cloud::Options{}.set<google::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption>(
google::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials(contents));
return google::cloud::sql_v1::SqlBackupRunsServiceClient(
google::cloud::ExperimentalTag{},
google::cloud::sql_v1::MakeSqlBackupRunsServiceConnectionRest(
google::cloud::ExperimentalTag{}, options));
}
Follow these links to find examples for other *Client classes:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis page provides documentation for overriding default authentication credentials when interacting with Google Cloud SQL services.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest release candidate version is 2.37.0-rc, and multiple previous versions are available, down to version 2.11.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBy supplying a \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e, users can explicitly authenticate using a service account key file, which is shown in an example that uses \u003ccode\u003eMakeServiceAccountCredentials\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe provided example shows how to configure the \u003ccode\u003eSqlBackupRunsServiceClient\u003c/code\u003e, and links to examples for other \u003ccode\u003e*Client\u003c/code\u003e classes, such as \u003ccode\u003eSqlConnectServiceClient\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003eSqlDatabasesServiceClient\u003c/code\u003e, are also available.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWhile the provided example is simple, it's important to review the best practices for managing service account keys as found on the Google cloud platform.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]
